St. Pete leaders approve streamlined solutions to adjust extremely high water bills

City council eyes solutions to soaring water bills

Kailey Tracy reports.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - St. Petersburg City Council unanimously approved ways to streamline solutions to adjust extremely high water bills at its meeting on Thursday, adding in a section to the city code about relief for abnormal events.

The backstory:

For months now, FOX 13 has investigated complaints from St. Pete homeowners who faced extremely high water bills. Dozens have reached out, saying they’ve been hit with shockingly high water bills, some in the thousands of dollars.

Most have the same story: They call the city’s water department to report it and challenge it. City staff tells them to have a plumber come check for a leak. When no leak is found, they’re still stuck with the bill.

Some got shutoff notices. Noreen McClure said the city threatened to send her almost $11,000 bill to collections.

What they're saying:

"This entire ordeal has been both perplexing and disheartening, and it reflects a lack of adherence to protocol, transparency and accountability from the Utility Board," she said. "I was advised early in this process to admit that I had a leak and that there would be an adjustment done. There was no leak. I'm not going to come and lie and tell you so," McClure said.

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McClure said she appeared before the Utility Billing Review Committee in September on behalf of her elderly mother to address billing issue concerns at her mother’s vacant home. The consumption exceeded 200 gallons per hour over an extended period of time in two separate months in 2024 before the hurricanes.

"I am left questioning how such significant water consumption could occur abruptly and cease in a clear, defined amount of time in a vacant home. The Utility Board has offered no plausible explanation for this," McClure said. "This entire ordeal has been both perplexing and disheartening, and it reflects a lack of adherence to protocol, transparency and accountability from the Utility Board."

Attorney Matthew Weidner represents McClure.

"Six months have passed, folks, and I don't think any one of you have any legitimate answer to what happened," he told City Council members at their meeting on Thursday. "I certainly haven't heard it."

PREVIOUS: 2 lawsuits filed over St. Petersburg’s high water bills, city provides relief to homeowners

Local perspective:

Water department staff has given several theories, like flooding from the hurricanes caused a series of plumbing issues, including broken pipes, and they had to estimate bills they couldn’t read following the storms, but there hasn’t been a definitive answer.

"We still don't have a silver bullet as to why this happened," St. Pete Mayor Ken Welch said on Wednesday. "The combination of the flooding, the legacy system we have for estimating the metering issue is another one. So, I think there are a lot of culprits, and I think it was the perfect storm in some of these cases. My focus is that we treat people fairly and that we don't throw people into a fiscal problem because of a problem we have on our hand.

City Council also unanimously approved funds on Thursday for a consultant to provide utility billing analysis and dual register meter/customer analysis.

The consultant, Stantec, will help city staff complete utility billing analysis of billing abnormalities and high consumption data that has come through the billing and collections department pre- and post-Hurricane Helene and Milton. It will also complete an analysis of customer, meter, flow and ordinance data to examine the impact on customers that have historically been provided a dual register meter on their account but have since been changed to a single register meter.

Dig deeper:

At Thursday’s Council meeting, city staff went over the changes to section 27-6 of city code. According to City Administrator Rob Gerdes, city code didn’t have a section pertaining to leak adjustment relief for water bills when it comes to abnormal events.

READ: High water bills: St. Pete leaders vote to stop late fees, water shut offs after resident complaints

"I think that’s something really important that we’re trying to do tonight is add this section about abnormal events," Gerdes said. "I’ve talked before about city staff’s hands being tied on some of these instances. We heard one this morning where we feel terribly unfortunate for the lady that was here, but under our current ordinance, there’s really no relief to provide. That’s why this is so important to add this abnormal event."

"The truth is, situations do occur like water theft. Water theft does occur. We didn’t have that in the ordinance previously. What we’re asking you to do tonight is to give us some flexibility. That abnormal event will really help," Gerdes said.

The changes include adding relief for abnormal events, meaning usage is unaccounted for, unexpected to do to unusual or extenuating circumstances, including but not limited to plumbing system damage due to accidents, vandalism, water theft, or other occurrences generally beyond a customer’s control. When it’s applied after a declared state of emergency, it has to fall within 60 days following the declaration under the city’s emergency code for a hurricane or flooding event.

City Council also clarified language in Resolutions 2025-109 and 2025-110 that it approved on Feb. 20, 2025. The resolution about leak adjustment relief for involutory leaks during flood events states the leak has to happen during the time storm surge or flooding occurred, and the adjustments would be for the billing period including the flooding event and the one right afterward. Residents have to show proof of the flooding, which can be FEMA documentation or city or county residential damage assessments.

The other resolution is for mechanical water meters if there isn’t a leak. Customers have to have a reading that’s three times their average water use and prove there wasn’t a leak. The city’s water department will replace the mechanical meter with a digital one, and review readings to make sure they’re similar to the customer’s three-month average.

Weidner said the resolutions don’t go far enough to address the issue.

MORE: Attorney calls for audit into St. Pete’s irregular water bills, city leaders to take up issue Thursday

"That legislation is completely prospective. It avoids what happened and is continuing to happen right now. You have no answers. It talks about flood events. Well, what if the system was hacked? What if there's some other malevolent factor? It doesn't address that," Weidner said. "They're giving you a cure. You don't have any idea what the disease is."

What they're saying:

City staff told City Council on Thursday it wasn’t aware of any technical glitches with the meters in terms of over-reading.

Earlier this year, city council voted to stop late fees and shut off notices for people with irregular bills while they figure this out.

Now, Water Department staff told council that these issues can be taken care of at the department level rather than at the Utility Billing Review Committee (UBRC) level. Residents can still go to the city’s website and the UBRC to dispute any bill for any reason. However, staff said they can now adjust bills easier at the department level with an updated adjustment form.

The Source: The information in this story was gathered during a St. Petersburg City Council meeting. It also includes previous FOX 13 News reporting.

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